ROBERT Putman, a Harvard University Professor, did much to popularise the term social capital.
So what is social capital? It is the features of a social organisation (community) such as networks and trust that facilitate co-ordination and co-operation for social benefit.
A simple metaphor might be -it is the glue that holds members of a community together.
Another metaphor might be – it is the oil that enables a community to function smoothly.
Putman has argued that social capital has been declining in America for years and he cites the evidence of this such as the declining membership of voluntary organisations, fewer civic activities and lower levels of trust.
But if ever there was an example that social capital is not declining it is in Monbulk and the demonstration of the parents and the staff of the school joining in helping the Jarvis family in their hour of bereavement and need.
I am overwhelmed with response from our Monbulk community in providing refreshments and flowers for the celebration of Jo Jarvis’ life.
Her husband Jeff passes on his sincere appreciation to all.
The RSL is to be thanked for providing the venue free of charge. I must thank our students – they were wonderful in their support and understanding of Lena.
Ray Yates
Principal
Monbulk Primary School
LIKE many local residents and many people across Australia, I am extremely concerned about the Gunns pulp mill proposed for the Tamar Valley in northern Tasmania.
It is an absolute disgrace that the joint state-federal independent environmental assessment has been railroaded by the Tasmanian Labor Government and replaced with little more than a rubber stamp. I am fighting to ensure that the mill is not built until a comprehensive environmental assessment has been undertaken, but I need help.
Last week I made a speech in the Australian Parliament, and as secretary of the Backbench Committee for Environment I met with Minister Malcolm Turnbull to raise my concerns.
Mr Turnbull stressed that the Australian Government’s powers were restricted under legislation, something reaffirmed by the Federal Court last week.
The Australian Government’s power to block the project is limited to whether the mill will have a significant impact on listed threatened species including the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle, migratory species, and the impact of the mill’s effluent outfall on the Commonwealth marine area.
I am totally opposed to this project going ahead if there is any doubt about its impact on these matters or if any old growth timber is used as feedstock for the mill. I have made this known personally to Gunns, to Mr Turnbull and the Australian Parliament.
If Gunns reneges on its commitment not to use old growth timber, the Australian Government can and will bring to bear all its powers to force Gunns to comply.
Jason Wood
La Trobe MP
Let the count begin
I HAVE sat down and asked myself am I a cynical person? Only took me five minutes to answer that I am. The election has not been called and already the Liberals are pork barrelling. The Mail last week had a photo of our Federal MP handing over $2 million to help build a cultural centre. Good for them.
Then he was on another page giving another $2 million for a long needed road up grade in Gembrook.
How long did they have to wait, only 20 years? It must be a marginal seat.
One wonders how much more money Jason Wood will have to throw around. If he is short of ideas, how about paying for the residents of Cockatoo to have their homes piped to the main sewerage? Now there’s a thought.
Peter Costello’s brag of a $17.3 billion war chest for the coming election hasn’t gone down well. This just means that we are too high taxed in the first place and that is not good economic management on this government’s part.
It should be ashamed that this country is the second highest taxing country in the western world.
I look forward to see what other largesse should come our way but do give my idea of piping the residents of Cockatoo to mains sewerage we would be grateful (but not enough to vote for you).
I will be counting how many times Mr Wood gets his photo in the local papers between now and election day. It’s two and counting so far.
Valerie Hughes
Cockatoo
The value of life
LAST week Premier John Brumby announced that abortion legislation was again on the agenda. His proposal raises the issue of the community view of current practice.
Current practice is 20,000 abortions a year in Victoria… about one in five pregnancies were terminated last year. Women are accorded the rights to well-being and to self-determination in this matter.
Rights can only be realised if the community accepts them. The exercise of my right to well-being depends on others contributing to my well-being.
The right to self-determination means that everyone is allowed to do what he/she wants to do… within reason.
The right to self-determination comes with boundaries – boundaries set not by individual circumstances, but by the community.
Rights derive from basic community values – in this case the values that life, and how it is lived, matters.
The abortion debate comes down fundamentally to whether we place our emphasis on life or on how we live it out.
In every other debate, life takes precedence. For example, our legal system values life ahead of well-being and self-determination.
The punishments for taking a human life are the most severe. Even capital punishment was abolished in this state based on the conviction that the risk of taking an innocent life was far too great. Destruction of innocent life is fundamentally an offence against the value that society holds highest.
It is for this reason that I would urge our politicians to re-examine the laws regarding abortion, not to preserve current practice, but to wind it back. At the same time we need to look at the issues that propel women towards abortion and address them at a government, a community and a personal level.
R. Maher
Sassafras
Extreme green
A PASSIVE reading of the Shire of Yarra Ranges Environmental Strategy may not elicit its genuine intent as that is hidden behind pages of propaganda.
An alarming aspect of the strategy is its apparent disdain for humankind. The following excerpts from the Environmental Strategy highlight the council’s craving to control our lives.
In its goal to be “environmental leaders” the council vows that “environmental values will not be compromised in the pursuit of community objectives”.
Currently communities are begging for funds to save their pools but the council is dismissing these pleas in favour of tree planting and buying carbon credits.
Since “human behaviour is at the centre of environmental problems” the council believes it is duty bound to “change (the community’s) behaviour” with a “suite of approaches” such as rigorous “environmental regulation and enforcement regimes”.
The council desires the role of parent and will punish us accordingly. It also maintains that “effective community education must underpin all efforts” as it is the “key to changing behaviour”.
The council has adopted an extreme green ideology that rejects freethinking so it has entered the schools to indoctrinate our children with their brand of environmental dogma.
The council proclaims that we need to ensure an ecologically sound future for generations to come but what about a fair and balanced democracy?
Even the Garden of Eden would be hell without personal freedoms. But unlike the Garden of Eden that had just one rule, the Environmental Strategy has scores. All our activities will be restricted.
The council may not be able to enforce all their compliance threats now, but if the strategy passes it guarantees oppressive regulations will be put in place. That is where the danger lies.
Humanity can and has adapted to various climate changes. We’ve survived glaciations (ice ages) and even the Medieval Warming Period that saw higher temperatures than today. But humankind never adapts to tyranny.
We must decide if we want our children condemned to a life of draconian regulations implemented by a council out of control.
If we remain complacent and do nothing to stop the Environmental Strategy we may be sentencing our grandchildren to fight a rebellion we were too lazy to prevent.
C. Buckley
Healesville
